ACT Project Newsletter Issue 1, Dec. 2012

ACT -The Launch: Lights, Camera, Action! The ACT project was launched in Heathpark, County

Wexford, by the Minister for Small Business, Mr.

What is ACT? ‘ACT’ stands for Advanced Communication Technologies.

It is a joint Ireland-Wales INTERREG project, which seeks to help SMEs and micro

enterprises to improve and grow their business with the help of social media

and online marketing. The ACT project hopes to impact directly on small

businesses, by assisting them to take advantage of social media tools

benefitting their business capacity through added value and more effective

business processes. ACT: ‘Creating a stronger online presence for your business’.

ACT is a Joint Ireland-Wales INTERREG IVA project, part-funded by the European

Union through the European Regional Development Fund

‘The ACT project

exists to help SMEs

across West Wales and

South-East Ireland

better understand

social media and take

advantage of the

opportunities it offers

for business growth’

Wexford, by the Minister for Small Business, Mr.

John Perry, T.D. at a very busy but very wet and

mucky National Ploughing Championships in late

September. The Chairman of SERA was also in

attendance as master of ceremonies along with staff

members from SERA and our special guests from our

Welsh partners, Orla and Katrina. Special thanks to

project partner Kieran Comerford, Carlow CEB and all

the South-East City & County Enterprise Boards who

facilitated us in the bustling ‘Enterprise’ pavilion.

ACT Project Partners

•South-East Regional Authority (Lead Partner)

•Carlow County Enterprise Board

•Swansea Metropolitan University

•University of Wales: Trinity St. David

Above: Minister for Small Business, Mr. John Perry, T.D., and Cllr.

Larry O’Brien, Cathaoirleach of the South-East Regional Authority

launching ‘ACT’ at ‘The National Ploughing Championships’.

The ACT Project commenced in summer 2012 and

will run until 2014. It will have 3 distinct phases or

‘ACTs’. ACT 1 which finishes in early 2013, involves set-

up and launch of the project, baseline research and open

invite events in both Wales and Ireland such as

workshops and training seminars for SMEs

"Our head of social media is the customer" – McDonalds

Social Media Programme rolled

out to SMEs through City &

County Enterprise Boards in the

South-East Region in 2012

Social media for beginners

Social media advanced users

YouTube your business

South-East Region in 2012

Apps for business

As part of ACT phase I, a social media

programme was devised by Enterprise

Boards from the South-East region and

delivered directly to SMEs and micro-

enterprises across the region up to

December 2012. Funded by ACT and

delivered free of charge by a panel of

specialist trainers, almost 200 SMEs have

participated to date in at least 1 of the 4

sessions. Additional workshops will be

run during 2013, watch this space!!

Did you know?*

There are 2.2m Facebook users in Ireland.

LinkedIn has 750,000 Irish accounts.

% of Irish internet users accessing retail sites = 93.8.

Lady Gaga with 33m followers is the most followed

celebrity on Twitter. Niall Horan from OneDirection is the

most followed Irish celebrity with 8.3 m followers.

* Source: www.socialbakers.com

Welsh Deputy Minister

launches ACT in LlanelliPartners from SERA and Carlow CEB were

delighted to attend the Welsh launch of

ACT at Machynys, Llanelli in late October.

A really well attended event with guest

speakers from the world of social media

including @warrenof and @julian_hoffi

and great stories about how social media

can positively impact business.

As part of ACT Phase 1, our

Welsh partners ran a series of

short popcorn events in the

run-up to Christmas.

Designed to help SMEs think

about how to use social media

to interact with customers

online, to improve their online

presence and to develop

business through different

social media tools.

3 workshops were covered:

•Branding - key ingredients;

•Websites – digital tools to

get online;

•Social networks – tweet,

post, vlog, linking.

The CIME App Another Ireland-

Wales INTERREG IVA project, in which

the South-East Regional Authority was

Popcorn events run in Wales

Follow us @ActIrelandWales and @Official_SERA

Subscribe to http://www.youtube.com/user/ACTIRELANDWALES

Visit us at www.actirelandwales.com

Contact Lead Partner SERA at dir@sera.ie or 00353 52 6126200

Carlow CEB on

FacebookWhy not visit ACT partner

Carlow CEB’s Facebook page

for a world of information and

activity on small business

Carlow CEB Facebook

can positively impact business.the South-East Regional Authority was

the Lead Partner, CIME, was recently

completed following a very successful 3

year project. One of the legacies of the

project, which aimed to give micro-

enterprises access to creativity and

innovative thinking tools is the CIME

app – freely available toolkits and

techniques on any platform available to

small businesses. Check it out at

http://tools.cimeproject.com/